Arrest, Conviction, Sentencing
Executive Transition Planning
The Association works to strengthen the professionalism and role of parole releasing authorities in ensuring public safety. This grant supports hiring a consultant to identify an interim executive director during a period of reorganization.
General Operating Support
This grant provides general operating support to the APAI, a professional association for parole board officials in the United States and Canada that seeks to further the professionalism and reliance on best practices of parole boards in ensuring public safety.
Physicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy
Founded in 1982, the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies is a research and policy institute at Brown University Medical School that focuses on prevention and intervention of addictive disorders. The Center's faculty conducts research projects, trains future researchers and crafts more effective and humane public health policies. This grant supports a collaboration with the National Judicial College in an effort to help judges and lawyers better address the needs of individuals with substance abuse problems.
This grant provides general operating support.
This grant provides general operating support.
Transitional Case Management – Stakeholders Group
The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services works to increase the use at sentencing of community sanctions that are fair, cost-effective, and consistent with public safety. This grant supports a stakeholders group, consisting of representatives of New York City agencies, to identify and change criminal justice policies that negatively impact misdemeanor offenders with mental illness.
This grant provides general operating support to the Center, which serves the needs of families who have lost loved ones to sudden death, some as a result of violent crime, and advocates for the rights of victims before state policymaking bodies.
A Summit to Support Death Penalty Repeal in Maryland
The Institute brings academia and communities of color together on civil rights issues. This grant supports a convening of African American political and religious leaders to strengthen their participation in efforts to repeal the state’s death penalty.
Justice/Violence Index
This grant supports the production of a report on the status of the criminal justice system in the Chicago metropolitan area. The report will cover several topics including recidivism, offense and sentencing patterns, disproportionate minority impact, and the economic and social consequences of incarceration.
Three Year Strategic Plan
This grant supports the implementation of the recommendations from a Citizens Alliance report on parole. Activities include education of legislators about parole-related issues, outreach to social service providers that would likely benefit from corrections savings, communications and research.
Dallas County DNA Audit and Case Review
The Dallas County District Attorney's Office is a prosecutor's office with a heightened interest in ensuring a fair system of justice in Dallas County. This grant enables the DA's Office to contract with the Innocence Project of Texas to review approximately 400 post-conviction cases to identify and exonerate wrongfully convicted persons.
The Death Penalty Information Center provides the media and public with analyses and information on all capital punishment-related issues. This grant provides operating support to the Center.
Proposition 36
The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000, also known as Proposition 36, will be up for reauthorization and refunding in California in the summer of 2006. Because Proposition 36 diverts non-violent drug offenders from prison into treatment, it is considered one of the most significant pieces of sentencing reform law ever enacted. Since its enactment, at least five other states (Hawaii, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and Maryland) have enacted similar reforms and more are considering doing so. This grant supports the development of a statewide educational campaign to promote the successes, develop accountability mechanisms to ensure proper implementation, and extend Proposition 36 in California.
2006 State Sentencing Research Project
Families Against Mandatory Minimums was founded to reform state criminal justice policies that mandate harsh sentences without the possibility of judicial discretion and without consideration of mitigating circumstances. Reaching out across the political spectrum, Families Against Mandatory Minimums combines the skills and assets of a sophisticated policy, advocacy and legal organization with a grass-tops/grassroots network that includes more than 25,000 members in 35 chapters around the country.This grant supports iresearch to identify states where there is potential for sentencing reform within the next two years.
This grant provides general operating support .
Death Penalty Reform Litigation Project: Lethal Injection Challenge
The Institute is a public interest law firm founded in 1978. This grant provides support to the Institute to mount a legal challenge to Florida's continued use of lethal injection.
Georgia Defense Based Victim Outreach Project
This grant supports a project to incorporate violent crime survivors' needs and concerns into the criminal trial process and outcome by giving them equal access to both the defense and prosecution. The project, housed in the University's School of Social Work, is one of a few in the country that reflects a restorative justice approach to crime victim's rights.
Capital Case Organizing and Research Project
The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty educates the public about flaws in the Illinois death penalty system and advocates for humane and effective alternatives to capital punishment. This grant supports independent analysis of the state's new death penalty system, and strengthens the Coalition's organizing work to oppose capital prosecutions, building on the moratorium that went into effect on January 31, 2000
This grant enables the Innocence Project to expand its staff in core program areas, hire professionals to run its communications and development departments, and bring on consultants to help implement its five year strategic plan.
General Operating Support
The Innocence Project, affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, is both a legal clinic and a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and other criminal justice systems reform. This grant enables the Innocence Project to hire additional attorneys and research staff to continue its work in core program areas and expand its capacity to expose the sources of wrongful convictions and raise awareness about its services.
Strategic Planning
Founded in 1996, the Project advocates for drug policy reform and works for the enhancement of treatment services for people with addictions. This grant supports hiring a strategic planning consultant.
Arson Screening Project
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice: Center for Modern Forensic Practice, through its relationships with law enforcement leaders and practitioners, enhances the ability of the criminal justice system to evaluate evidence and integrate scientific methods into the criminal justice process. With this grant, the Center will use newly developed standards for arson detection to assess a backlog of convictions based on a widely used but disproven method for determining fire sources. It will disseminate findings throughout the criminal justice and allied communities.
Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Technical Assistance Center
Located at the University of South Florida, the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute does research and training in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, and criminal justice. This grant will support the Institute's technical assistance to counties providing community-based mental health services for people involved in the criminal justice system.
Florida Partners in Crisis
Founded in 1949, the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County is dedicated to promoting improved treatment, assisting people with mental illness, educating the public about mental illness and overcoming stigma. This grant provides core support for a statewide coalition of judges, law enforcement, correctional officers, people with mental illness and service providers working to promote awareness, advocate for increased resources for prevention and treatment services, and support the development of jail diversion programs for people with mental illness.
The New Jersey Association on Correction provides comprehensive support services to adults and juveniles who are transitioning from prisons to communities. It also focuses on public education and policy with respect to criminal justice reform.This grant provides general operating support.
Eyewitness Identification Field Studies: Development and Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Case Outcomes
The Police Foundation supports innovation in policing through research, technical assistance, professional services, and communication. This grant will support the Police Foundation to develop the methodology for assessing case strength and tracking case outcomes to determine which eyewitness identification lineup procedure is more accurate: simultaneous or sequential. This project will augment a larger eyewitness identification field study now underway by the American Judicature Society.
The Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) advocates for fair and effective pretrial practices that eliminate inappropriate detention, optimize diversion from prosecution, and maintain community safety. This grant provides support to PJI to create an Internet-based Pretrial Justice Help Desk to respond to requests from the field, provide users with online access to pretrial program information from across the country, and stimulate research on best practices in pretrial services.
The Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) advocates for fair and effective pretrial practices that eliminate inappropriate detention, optimize diversion from prosecution, and maintain community safety. This grant provides general operating support that enables PJI to continue its public policy and advocacy work.
The Center is a national clearinghouse for information on pretrial issues and a technical assistance provider for pretrial practitioners, criminal justice officials, academicians, and community leaders. This grant provides general operating support.
This grant provides general operating support for the organization's ongoing work as the primary advocate for reforming the administration of the death penalty in Texas.
Litigation, Amici, and Communications Strategy in Panetti v. Quarterman
This grant supports TDS in coordinating litigation, amici, and communications strategy with the Constitution Project, Justice Project, and Death Penalty Information Center in the Supreme Court case, Panetti v. Quarterman, which seeks to broaden the class of persons whose mental illness bars them from execution under the Eighth Amendment.
Founded in 1913, the American Judicature Society (AJS) is committed to secure and promote an independent and qualified judiciary and a fair system of justice. AJS will conduct a field study of eyewitness identification procedures with the goal of enhancing their reliability and accuracy and producing greater public safety. AJS will work with its law enforcement partners to disseminate the study's findings.
Racial Disparity Project
The Association pursues state-wide reform and provides legal representation to indigent persons. This grant supports the Project's challenge to Seattle's selective enforcement of low-level drug offenses and diversion of low-level drug offenders from incarceration into social service programs.
The Sentencing Project is a leading criminal justice policy research and advocacy organization, well-respected for the depth and range of its policy analyses and recommendations. The organization's research frequently is used by advocacy and media organizations. This grant supports the core work of the Sentencing Project.
law.berkeley.edu/clinics/dpclinic/resources.html
Death Penalty Clinic
The Death Penalty Clinic, founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, exposes and tackles problems endemic to the administration of the death penalty. This grant provides support to the Clinic to hire counsel as a legal resource for attorneys challenging lethal injection protocols in selected states and to fund the expenses of expert witnesses.
Fetal Alcohol & Drug Unit
The Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit is a research institution that studies the impact of primary and secondary disabilities caused by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. This grant supports plans for programs in state drug courts to identify defendants in criminal cases who suffer from this disorder and therefore qualify for assistance under state and federal programs for the developmentally disabled.
Opportunity Fund
This grant will help establish Vera's internal research and development opportunity fund to better assist the organization's response to emerging critical justice system issues.
Correctional Oversight
This grant will support Vera in developing correctional oversight mechanisms in several states.
Cost-Benefit Capacity
This grant will support Vera's ability to provide research and technical assistance to states and local jurisdictions by building internal capacity to provide cost-benefit analysis of sentencing and correctional policy options.
State Sentencing and Correction Policy Reform Technical Assistance
Founded in 1951, the Vera Institute of Justice works to promote fair and sensible criminal justice policies and practices. This grant provides funding for Vera to offer sentencing and corrections technical assistance to state officials engaged in comprehensive reforms of their criminal justice systems.
Fostering Racial Justice in Prosecution
This grant supports a project to reduce racial disparity in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in three locations: Johnson County, Kansas; Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; and Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
Downsizing Prisons
Founded in 1951, the Vera Institute of Justice works to promote fair and sensible criminal justice policies and practices. This grant supports distribution and promotion efforts for a book, Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration, written by Michael Jacobsen, former New York City Corrections Commissioner and current executive director of Vera. The book analyzes incarceration policies nationwide and crime declines in the 1990s, challenging the entrenched assumption that locking up more offenders yielded a reduction in the crime rate. Jacobsen also highlights a number of pragmatic reforms and details the economic arguments for reducing the number of people incarcerated in our prisons.
County-Level Support for Alternatives to Incarceration
This grant supports WISDOM to conduct a public education campaign in the 11 Wisconsin Counties under consideration to be pilot sites for the Wisconsin Court System's initiative to change local sentencing practices by providing judges with better information.
Oregon Advocacy Program
This grant supports advocacy work to promote sentencing reform and alternatives to incarceration in Oregon.
Enhancing Public Safety: Effective Justice Strategies
The Wisconsin Supreme Court's Director of State Courts Office (DSCO) has authority and responsibility for the overall management of the Wisconsin Court System. This grant supports DSCO to research and develop justice system policies and practices, improve cooperation among all segments of the justice system, and provide the courts with better information to impose the most effective sentences.
